1.5 ETHICS AND ETHOS Ethics is a vast field of study that really addresses only one question: How The question of human well-being ultimately focuses should we live our on how e should live. But while this may seem a simple question, it is perhaps the most fundamental question any human can ask. We can begin to answer it by reflecting on the nature of philosophical ethics. Within the Western tradition philosophical ethics is often traced to the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates There is perhaps no better characterization of ethics than Socrates' statement that deals with no small thing, but with how we ought to live." Like all cultures the Greeks had a set of beliefs, attitudes, and values that guided their lives. The word ethics is derived from the Greek word ethos, meaning "customary" or "con ventional." Most Greeks would have answered Socrates by claiming that we ought to live an ethical life. Like most people in other cultures, an ethical life for the Greeks would have been a life lived according to the beliefs, attitudes, and values that were customary in their own culture. Often, these customary values are connected to a culture's religious worldview. To be ethical, in the sense of ethos, is to conform to what is typically done, to obey the conventions and rules would be identical to ethos of one's society and religion. In this sense e Taking its lead from Socrates, philosophical ethics is not content to accept this as an answer to the q n of how we should live. We said earlier that each one of us answers ethical questions every day by how we choose to live our lives. For many people, this choice is made implicitly by conforming to the ethos and customs of their culture. Philosophical ethics denies that simple conformity and obedience are the best guides to how we should live. From the very beginning, philosophy rejects authority as the source of ethics and has instead, defended the use of reason as the foundation of ethics. Philosophical ethics seeks a reasoned analysis of custom and a reasoned defense of how we ought to live Philosophical ethics distinguishes what people do value from what people hould value. What people do in fact value is the domain of such social sciences as sociology, psychology, and anthropology. As a branch of philosophy, however, ethics asks us to step back and rationally evaluate the customary beliefs and values that people do hold. Philosophical ethics requires us to abstract our selves from what is normally or typically done, and reflect upon whether or not what is done, should be done, and whether what is valued, should be valued. The difference between what is valued and what ought to be valued is the difference between ethos and ethics Perhaps this observation helps to explain some of the skepticism surround- ing business ethics. Any philosophical focus on business ethics seems to suggest some dissatisfaction with, or misgivings about, what is normally or customarily done in business. Why step back from what is normally done unless you have reason to doubt that what is being done should be done? But while philosophi cal ethics is critical in the sense of demanding reasons for each decision, it need not be critical in the sense of rejecting or disagreeing with the customary norms and standards